Cecily Gardener
Basics
Name: Cecily Tovah Gardener (Cecily means 'blind', but more importantly it comes from a Saint Cecilia, who was considered the patron saint of music and musicians :D; Tovah means 'good'; for Gardener I am using the second interpretation according to Behind the Name - "Possibly derived from the Saxon words gar meaning "a weapon", and dyn meaning "sound, alarm", combined with the termination er.")
Age/Birthdate/Zodiac: 24/September 28/Libra
Occupation/School/Usual Hang Outs: Musician/busker/street performer/etc. Usually seen in the downtown area, or in small, local venues.
Skills, Hobbies: violin, piano, ukulele, singing, composition, able to play by ear after hearing a song only once, being in her underwear (it's more comfortable that way!), dancing; more 'super' skills include: able to hear like a Sonic Ear device (listening in on conversations a few feet away!), huge octave range, very good projection without the use of a microphone, able to hear sounds outside of the range of normal human hearing (may be more of an annoyance than a skill)
Likes: harps (she plans to learn to play, too!), just about any kind of music, fun socks, whale songs, pretty lingerie, fairy tales, alcohol, some recreational drugs (mainly marijuana and mushrooms), cursing, hair decorations, hats, swing sets, shocking performance art
Dislikes: kitsch (though she loves satirizing it, which I suppose is kitsch in itself; never mind that a lot of what she does is pretty kitschy >_> SHHH! It is all very DEEP and MEANINGFUL.), capitalism, labels, status quo (the status is not quo!), mediocrity, vegetables, floral prints, plaid shorts, IKEA
Timeline
* September 28, 1984: Born to Vera and Marshall Gardener
* 1986: Crashes some pots and pans together, is overjoyed.
* Fall 1989: Begins Kindergarten, and thinks it is quite possibly the most spectacular year EVER. (This has not changed.)
* 1990: Begins singing, dancing and piano lessons.
* Fall 1998: Begins high school, and thinks it is the most boring year ever. :(
* Fall 1999: Tenth grade, starts taking violin lessons while continuing singing, dancing and piano, decides this year is a little more fun!
* Summer 2002: Graduates high school with minimal incident (except for that time she flashed a teacher. And the times she was sent home for 'inappropriate dress'.)
* Fall 2002: Begins college, majoring in music therapy.
* 2005: At the end of her third year of college, Cecily takes an 'extended break' to travel the world and basically be a starving artist/vagrant. XD
* 2007: Sometime in this year, she returns to Sunset City. She starts playing on the streets downtown and in local venues to make money (She has a VERY modest following, mostly young 'outcast' teenagers and friends).
This Year (2008):
* She's just starting back to school this September; other than that, she's been writing, composing and performing as much as she can!
Big Deals
Appearance:
Hair: When down, the longest parts of Cecily's hair reaches nearly to her waist, but she typically has most of it up in two very messy, multi-textured, poofy pigtails; she also has thick bangs cut into a point at the centre and longer forelocks framing her face. She often adds things into her hair such as string, ribbon, pipe cleaners, netting, extensions, etc. It is also usually dyed to something completely unnatural, either solid or various colours. When she awakens, she notices that her roots are no longer growing in dark brown, but in what can only be described as 'aurora borealis', except it's more streaky than faded together. She stops dyeing her hair at that point, since it's obviously so cool on its own.
Eyes: Plain ol' brown, almond shaped, average-sized. If not for the staggering amounts of eye make up, her eyes would be completely unremarkable. Fortunately, her eyes are usually adorned with false lashes, thick colourful liner, sparkly and colourful shadows, and sometimes even little stick-on jewels and drawings. Her eyes are framed by relatively thin brows, sometimes emphasized with ridiculously coloured liner or black liner, depending on her mood.
Skin: Translucent! Well, as close to it as a human being can get. Cecily is paaaaaale, and prefers to keep it that way (she feels that it goes with the look she's going for - whatever that may be). She even uses things like baby powder to make herself look even lighter (and to minimize the contrast of scars against her natural complexion, since they tend to stand out; the scars are just the normal array of scrapes and cuts that most people tend to collect over the course of one's life).
Face: Cecily's face is heart-shaped, with a slightly stronger chin and less prominent cheekbones. Her features are pretty evenly distributed, but her nose is a bit larger than what would seem proportionally correct. Her top and bottom lip are the same thickness and very similar in shape - the peak of her top lip is not very pronounced. She tends to make her lips look a little bigger by lining them just on the outside and filling in with whatever colour or colours she decided to go with that day.
Build: Similarly to her eyes, Cecily has a rather unremarkable figure. She's average height at 5'6", and isn't particularly thin or large. She has some mild pudge to her tummy, rounded arms and legs, but her waist-to-hip ratio is small, leaning toward boyish - but not quite. Her breasts are proportional to her body at a large B/small C. She bites her nails, so her fingers are pretty stubby-looking, and they are covered in calluses from playing various stringed instruments, as well as being a little more masculine than the rest of her. Similarly, her feet are calloused from dancing and, well, we'll call them not-so-dainty. XD
Attire: An avid thrift store shopper, Cecily pretty much grabs anything that interests her. If she ever comes up with an outfit that somehow matches or 'comes together', you should probably prepare for Armageddon. She loves nearly any kind of shoes, wacky, contrasting colours, frilly things, stockings or socks or layers of both, and of course all sorts of lingerie that she wears as regular clothing. Her mood has a great deal to do with how an outfit goes together, so it can end up being masculine, feminine or ambiguous, bright or dark, vintage or modern, etc etc. KIND OF A HEADACHE. Oddly enough, despite Cecily's tendency toward grandiose adornments and decorations, she doesn't have any tattoos or piercings - not even her ears. She doesn't have a problem with it, but it never really appealed to her for herself.
Personality:
* Virtues: creative, accepting, intelligent, confident, trusting, compassionate
* Neutrals: naive, exaggerates, talkative/noisy, dramatic
* Vices: scatterbrained, no concept of personal space, irresponsible, not as self-aware as she likes to think she is, and not as stable as she likes to think she is
Blurb:
As can be expected from an artistic individual, Cecily is eccentric and, while not necessarily unpredictable, rather scattered. It’s not that she can’t focus at all, but that she generally doesn’t focus on things that she doesn’t care about. Every once in a while, she gets really into a few things, then moves on to the next set of obsessions. None of her interests ever truly go away, but sort of cycle in and out with new things.
When in those obsessive moods, Cecily has a tendency to go all in and forget about the outside world. She’s not intentionally selfish (not that many of us are!), but it does get her into trouble when she’s in a particularly creative mood. Of all her fixations, songwriting and performing are the most important to her, and she won’t halt for much.
In less fixated moods (or rather, when she’s not fixated on creative ventures), Cecily is incredibly nosy. Likely driven by impending boredom, she will fill her time by attaching herself to a person or group of people and ask a lot of questions. This can be endearing or incredibly annoying, depending on the person. :D
Though Cecily’s naivete certainly has a childlike quality about it, she is far from innocent. She is as apt to be a little emotionally manipulative (ie: DRAMA) as anyone, and hasn’t always been the most forthcoming about her own faults. She certainly believes herself to be a mature, actualized individual, but she harbours much insecurity underneath it all. A lot of her wild, histrionic behaviour comes down to her uncertainty about her own worth and talent. Her confidence is more a result of her denial than an actual belief in her abilities.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t occur to Cecily that others might want to manipulate her as well, and for worse reasons – she trusts people implicitly, no matter how many times she’s been wronged. As irritating and occasionally selfish she can be, Cecily ultimately cares very deeply about people in general, and is very optimistic about human nature. This may be in part from a desire to connect with people through her art, and hoping that she reaches them somehow.
The Other Side
Elemental Control: Air: Sound
Abilities: This is a sizeable list, but I would like to note that most of these abilities are not present upon Cecily's awakening. These are just the ideas I had for potential uses of her power, which may come with much practice over time.
Amplify: Make sounds louder! This is particularly good if she needs to warn someone from a good distance away, or just make someone's ears hurt.
Mute: Making things shut up! Effective when sneaking around, she can make people in close proximity like NINJAS.
Mimic: She's like that guy from Police Academy!
Extreme Bass: This is the first power that Cecily is able to use. It makes the target sick to her or his stomach, accompanied by dizziness and inability to focus.
High Pitch: The second power that Cecily discovers, it is mainly good for causing extreme headaches or alerting dogs. o_o
Type of Hunter: Mage
Relic: Ukulele (summoner)
Band: Who knows? The Fortress would give her somewhere to live. XD